


nothing for us in this city

by remi_mae



Series: you got me feeling like a super [1]
Category: Batman (Comics), Batman - All Media Types, Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fusion, Bat Family, Batman in the MCU, Gen, It's just Batman in the MCU, MCU/Batman crossover, Post-Avengers (2012), Well Batfam, funnily enough Batman's not even in the fic lmao, some swearing but about as much as a pg-13 movie, that's the plot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-15
Updated: 2019-01-15
Packaged: 2019-10-10 19:37:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,873
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17432246
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/remi_mae/pseuds/remi_mae
Summary: Lots of weird news comes out of Gotham City - killer clowns, plant ladies, guys seemingly made of clay - but recently there's rumours of a vigilante. The Batman, they're calling him. Tony just doesn't understand why he and Cap are the ones that have to check it out.





	nothing for us in this city

**Author's Note:**

> This is post avengers but not by much. Lets say Dick is 22, Jason's 18, Tim's 15, and Dami's 10. I don't know if those ages actually line up to canon, but a) I don't care, b) it's gotta be close, and those are the age differences I always have in my head, roughly, and c) it's not really that relevant. There's no real semblance of Batman canon here anyway lmao
> 
> Title from Keyakizaka46's Mou Mori e Kaerou Ka? and potentially subject to change. I'm bad at titles.
> 
> 2019/08/23 edit: went through and capitalized everything

Gotham is... Gotham is something alright, Tony thinks, watching over rooftops. It's late, but it has to be, to try and find what they're there for - _who_ they're there to find. The city is still lit up, in parts, but the fog makes it hard to see more than a few blocks ahead. It’s nothing like New York. If it was his choice, he would never visit this city, especially not like this, but, unfortunately, it isn't always up to him.

There were rumours, about a vigilante in Gotham City. The Batman. Some people still seem convinced it's just a rumour - Tony's one of them really - but all myth is based in fact, however wrong it might be. There are enough rumours, people claiming that they saw the Batman, that he saved them, that there's merit in investigating, even if nothing comes of it. And he doesn't _think_ SHIELD would send them on a wild goose chase. They have to assume this Batman is real, even if it seems silly.

Of course, a few years ago aliens seemed silly, and now Tony works with one. His world has gotten a lot bigger, and while the idea of a vigilante running around dressed as a bat sounds ridiculous, he goes around in a flying suit of armor, works with an alien, a guy who turns big and green when he's angry, Captain _fucking_ America straight out of the 40's, and a couple of master assassins. And really, if anywhere was going to have a vigilante running around, Gotham seems like the place that would have it. God knows they probably need it.

It's also home to Bruce Wayne, one of the richest men alive, a billionaire that Tony's had the, uh, _pleasure_  of meeting a couple of times. He doesn't hate the guy, but he's never gotten along with him either. Pepper would say their personalities were too similar, but Tony's changed a lot, the last couple of years, and he's pretty sure if he ever had to meet Brucie Wayne at a party again, he'd turn heel and run the other way. He doesn't really like the idea of being in Wayne's city. Partly it's just that, but also Gotham is just... Gotham. It's dark, and grimy, and the crime there is unbelievable. If certain sources are to be believed - and Tony's not sure he really wants to believe them - they have costumed villains running around. It's not a pleasant place to be.

It's just him and Cap, standing on a rooftop in Gotham City, not far from the bay. Tony honestly has no idea where to start. He's not even sure he wants to start.

"If there really is a Batman, I don't think he'd take too kindly to us running around his city." It's why they're on the outskirts of the city - Cap wouldn't necessarily like it, but if it came to it, Tony could grab him and run for it (or, fly, as it were.) "It's not like we can just walk the streets dressed like this."

"But he'd likely look right past us in civvies, and we want him to notice us." Cap lets out a sigh, eyes scanning the horizons for any signs of movement.

Moments after the words leave his mouth, something lands at Tony's feet. One second there's nothing, the next something is embedded in the roof by his feet. "What the?" He bends down, looking at it.

"What is it?" Cap asks, still scanning their surroundings, this time for someone nearby.

Tony pulls it out of the ground. It's metal, like a throwing star, but... "It's shaped like a bat." He says, standing back up and showing it to Cap, looking around himself. A throwing star shaped like a bat.

"You certainly stand out." The voice comes from the shadows, and both he and Cap are tensing, ready for a fight. Then the speaker steps into the light, a small, if confused, smile on his face. It's a man, in what Tony would like to describe as spandex, but he can see the padding, the armour, even from here. There's a blue domino mask pressed over his eyes, the whited out lenses making it impossible to see his true expression.

"Who are you?" There's a snort, but not from the man in front of them.

Another man steps from the shadows, not far away from the first. His arms are folded across his chest, half covering a red bat on the chest of his armour. He's followed closely by two more men.

Tony can safely say, of all the things he assumes would happen before they left Gotham, this was not among them.

"I'd say we should be asking _you_  that," the second shortest of the men (boys, they're just kids, what the _hell_?) says, crossing his own arms across his chest. "What brings Iron Man and Captain America to Gotham?" He doesn't sound like a child, not really, but he still sounds _young_ , a teenager. The last boy - well shit, he really is a boy; he can't be any older than ten or eleven, baby fat still clinging to his cheeks, the scowl on his face doing nothing to hide that - lets out a little sound, a quiet tch.

"Jesus Christ, how old are you all? Do your parents know you're out running around dressed like that?" The question is mostly rhetorical, but the man in the red helmet lets out a snort of a laugh anyway. In fact, the boy in blue looks a bit amused, and the boy in red look like he's trying to stifle a laugh.

"Would require having parents," the helmeted boy comments. Their reactions in comparison to the words almost give Tony whiplash. It's been over twenty years since his own parents died and he still can't make casual comments like that, yet... they don't seem to care. Maybe it's because they're younger - the humour is going to be different - but still. It's off putting.

"Hood, you're gonna scare them." The boy in blue says, while the youngest boy tuts again. "The adults who matter know," he assures them, though it's not very assuring at all.

"' _The adults who matter_ '?" Steve echoes, sounding as unbelieving as Tony feels.

"Well yeah. We've only got one okay-ish living parent between the four of us. Who the hell else are we going to tell?"

"Hood." The boy in blue warns lightly. He must be the eldest. Tony would've assumed the helmeted boy, Hood apparently, if only by height. Of course, that's not really the best judge, and he knows it.

"Nightwing." Hood shoots back in the same tone. He can't see through the eyes of the mask, but his body language makes it almost obvious Nightwing is rolling his eyes. "Fine, one decent, mostly, living parent and a grandfather for the four of us."

"Who are you all anyway?" Steve asks, probably just as curious as he is. And Tony's curious. There were rumours of a caped crusader, a masked vigilante watching over Gotham, but that was it. One. There are four in front of him, and none of them live up to the rumours of the Batman. None of them wear all black, for one, and none of them look like bats, aside from the bat on Hood's chest. "We've never heard of you."

Nightwing steps forward a little. Definitely the oldest then, the leader even. "It's not surprising you've never heard of us. I'm Nightwing. That's Red Hood. Red Robin. Robin." He points to each of them as he introduces them. Tony wants to comment on how similar three of the kids names are, but holds his tongue. They're just _kids_.

"And you're how old?" Steve tries to egg more information out of them. It's Red Robin's turn to snort lightly.

"Old enough," he says, before gesturing to Nightwing. "Wing and Hood have been doing this longer than you have," he speaks pointedly at Tony, an almost cocky smile working it's way onto his face. "I've been doing it almost as long."

That. That catches him off guard. Okay, sure, Nightwing could probably be in his early twenties, pushing it, based on what Tony can see of his face, and he can't see Red Hood's face to judge, but he's been Iron Man four years now. Red Robin is definitely no older than like, fifteen, maybe sixteen, and that seems like it's pushing it. That would mean -

"Oh, that's true, isn't it?" Nightwing grins at Red Robin, almost bouncing on the spot, oddly excited or intrigued by this revelation.

Jesus Christ Gotham is weird.

"Yeah, yeah. So two of us were wearing the scaly panties before there was an Iron Man. Woo hoo." There must be a voice modulator in his helmet, but the sarcasm is clear as day. "I think we've wasted enough time standing around chatting."

The change in demeanour is clear as day too.

"Hood's right. I don't know what brings you to Gotham, but let us hear it or leave. This is our city. We protect it." The words are kind enough, strictly business, but the underlying threat is there.

_'We don't need or want your help. Leave or we'll make you.'_

Tony's not really sure what they could do to make them leave if they didn't want to, but then again, they all seem well enough equipped, and if they're not lying about how long at least three of them have been doing this, they're clearly doing _something_ right. And the weapons, just the ones he can see; escrima sticks. Guns. A bo staff. A katana of all things. That weird bat throwing star that had come out of nowhere earlier that Tony's still holding onto.

Once again - Jesus Christ Gotham is _weird_.

"I'd suggest hurrying along," the smallest, Robin, tuts, "before Batman begins to question why we are not patrolling."

"Why we're not on comms bickering, you mean?" Red Robin comments, but that goes in one ear and out the other compared to what Robin said.

"He's real then - the Batman." It's out of Tony's mouth before he can really decide whether it's a good idea to actually _say_ why they're in Gotham. Nightwing's face shifts like he's raising an eyebrow, if it wasn't under his domino mask at least, and Red Hood laughs a little.

"Why would you not believe fa - Batman is real?" Robin questions - he starts to stalk forward, but Nightwing's arm keeps him in place. Behind him, Tony notes, as if he were a bad guy. If he wanted the little one, he'd have to go through Nightwing. It's not bad thinking, and clearly reflex.

"Everyone in New York just thinks it's rumours." Steve admits, almost nervously.

"Like that Hawkeye knock off in Star City." Tony adds. That gets a laugh out of Nightwing, and Tony can almost hear the smirk when Red Hood off handily comments "oh, Speedy'll get a kick outta that." Which, Tony _wants_ to question, but that's not the task at hand. The task at hand is to find out if the Batman is real, preferably talk to the Batman, and potentially set up a meeting with the Batman, for SHIELD. He just doesn't understand why it had to be him. They should've sent Clint or Natasha, or just both. They're actually trained for this shit.

"Yeah, well, the rumours are true. You're a bit late though. Like, almost fifteen years late." Red Hood comments, sounding very, very bored, like it's not interesting, and he's just stating a fact - which, apparently, he is.

"He's been doing this fifteen years?" Steve seems surprised. Tony is too, but at least he can keep that bit to himself. "How have we only recently heard of him?" That's directed at Tony, but he has no idea how to answer it - doesn't have to either.

"B prefers it that way. He avoids the media like the plague. Sticks to the shadows, all mysterious and stuff," Red Robin stifles a laugh, "plus it's _Gotham_. Most people don't really listen to the news coming out of here, or they just ignore it, stuff like this." That's... not wrong. There's so many conflicting rumours coming out of the city it's hard to tell what's real and what's someone crying for attention, not to mention the amount of things that just sound overblown or straight up ridiculous - like killer clowns and plant ladies.

"And you're, what, his little sidekicks?" Nightwing looks mildly offended. He's not the only one.

"Partners. I've always hated the term sidekick." He shakes his head a little, the last bit mumbled. "I worked with him first, and then branched off on my own. Then Hood worked with him, and... had to stop, for a while. Then Red was his partner, and now it's Robin. We all started out as Robin." Which means, almost certainly, that Nightwing and Red Hood have been superheroing since they were like, ten. What the _hell_?

"And he let you? When you were that young?"

Nightwing shrugged. "He didn't really have a choice - and trust me, he tried to get me to 'see reason,' and all that stuff. He did that with all of us. I was going to hit the streets whether he wanted me to or not - I saw my parents murdered, I knew who did it, and I wanted to make them pay, bring them to justice. At least B letting me work with him meant training me, giving me armour and equipment. It meant he had my back. He had all of our backs."

"Except that one time." Red Hood throws out, immediately followed up by Red Robin saying "Hood, you're seriously going to scare them." Tony's not sure he wants to know.

"That one time?" He asks anyway.

"Oh yeah. I died."

"What?" He's pretty sure he didn't mishear that, but _what?_

"You heard me. I died. Course, thinking about it now, B probably could've gotten there in time if I'd not been a stubborn little shit and told him what I was doing."

"You think?" Nightwings voice is a bit squeaky. "I mean, I'm glad you can admit that now, but can we not tell strangers about the time you died?"

"You _died_?" Hood snorts out a small laugh.

"I got better. Clearly." Tony wants to know, but at the same time... he really, really doesn't.

"Moving swiftly along," Red Robin's shaking his head a little, keeps glancing over at the helmeted boy, before turning his attention entirely to Tony and Steve. "What _exactly_ are you doing here? We all have patrols to get back to."

Ah, back to business.

"SHIELD sent us," Steve says, and Tony doesn't miss how the four vigilante's react. They're not happy.

"SHIELD? Why." It's not a question, it's a demand.

"There were rumours about the Batman," Tony starts, "SHIELD wanted to know if they were true. They sent us to scope the place out, see if we could get a glimpse, find out what we could. If the rumours were true, and you're telling us they are, SHIELD wanted to try and set up a meeting. They'll probably try and talk him into working for them."

It's quiet for a moment, the four in front of him conferring among themselves quietly. Tony lets them. He doesn't have anywhere to be quickly - they expected to be here for hours, unfortunately.

"You can tell SHIELD he exists, that Gotham is watched over and protected by vigilantes," Nightwing says, voice serious. "We won't talk to them though." Tony raises an eyebrow.

"We don't get to talk to the Batman himself? That's who we're supposed to talk to. We didn't even know you lot existed until now." Nightwing shakes his head.

"I've known B long enough that I know what he'll say, and I'll be more polite about it." He says, "We won't talk to SHIELD. We work outside the law to protect our city. Working with SHIELD could have us anywhere and everywhere, and we can't have that. Gotham is home, for all of us. We protect it." The other three clearly agree, as they don't feel the need to add anything. Tony is... both annoyed and relieved, if he's honest. They found out the rumours were true, which was the biggest thing, and while not the Batman himself, they've spoken to these kids, who... apparently know the guy well enough. If Fury wants a different answer, he can send someone else or come out himself. Tony's not his messenger pigeon.

"Fair enough." Tony raises his hands, holding out the bat shaped throwing star. Nightwing reaches out to take it back, passes it back to Robin, who just tucks it into his utility belt silently. "I'll tell SHIELD what you said, but I wouldn't be surprised if they send more people to scope it out. I don't think they like being told no." Considering how long they stuck on Bruce's tail, chasing him and trying to track him down, Tony wouldn't be surprised if there were SHIELD agents in and out of the city for months.

Nightwing seems pleased, looks a little relaxed. He turns to the younger three and mumbles something. Red Robin just shrugs and turns to leave. Robin doesn't look pleased, but does the same after a moment. They both get to the edge of the building, and before Tony can say anything, jump. Steve starts to say something, almost panicked, but then two grappling hooks shoot out, attaching to separate buildings in different directions, and the birds swing away.

Nightwing seems to be trying to get Red Hood to do the same, and not succeeding.

"It's _fine_ , little wing. I just want to talk to them a little more, and B'll get suspicious if we're quiet much longer." Tony can hear him saying.

Red Hood snorts a little. "Yeah, not happening. I don't care if you're older, you don't really get to tell me what to do."

Nightwing makes a noise of annoyance, but turns back to Tony and Steve, apparently deciding he's not winning this argument, or at the very least that it's not worth it to draw it out. Tony doesn't say anything, lets the vigilante start how he wants.

"Batman doesn't play well with others," Nightwing starts. Tony makes a little noise, the equivalent of an eyebrow raise, or he hopes. It's really hard to do that while wearing armour, and he doesn't trust Gotham enough to even just flip the face plate up. "We're... sort of the exception. This - the four of us - that's not even all of us. But we're family, or close enough. None of us really takes well to outsiders, not unless they can prove themselves trustworthy. You'll have to excuse our hesitance to trust you."

It makes sense, in a weird way. "You all have secret identities, right? You're worried if you had to work with SHIELD, those identities would be revealed."

Red Hood makes an annoyed noise, and Nightwing rests a hand on his arm for a moment, sparing a glance at him. Red Hood just nods a little.

"That's part of it. We're very careful about our identities. We have to be. You might be safe with the world knowing who Iron Man is, but Batman... Gotham is different from the rest of the world in a lot of ways. We work outside the law. Do you know how long it took before the police stopped trying to arrest Batman and I? Years. It took years before they accepted our help, to actually trust us. Hell, there's still some cops who would love to arrest us."

"Some of us more than others," Red Hood grumbles, and Nightwing shoots him a look. The domino mask makes it impossible for Tony to even try and figure out what it means, but Red Hood seems to understand it well enough and just shrugs it off.

"I don't think B would trust SHIELD. I don't think I trust SHIELD. Gotham is our home, and I don't think any of us really care about protecting anything outside of it. We already have our hands full with it anyway." That Tony understands more. He's not sure he really trusts SHIELD most days either, not entirely. Too much secrecy. He understands wanting to protect your home. He might work differently, but he does get it. It makes sense.

"Pretty sure B likes being his own boss too much to work for someone else anyway," Red Hood says, and Nightwing lets out a laugh, nodding quickly.

"That too." It seems a bit like an inside joke, and Tony knows better than to even try and ask.

"We'll be sure to tell SHIELD. Still, don't be surprised if they send agents to try and find you." He shrugs as well he can in the suit, watching Nightwing smirk a little.

"They won't find us unless we want them to." Somehow Tony doesn't doubt that. Then Nightwing gives a little hop and starts to turn towards the edge of the building. "Well, little wing and I have a patrol to finish, and I'm sure you both have things to do. It was nice meeting you!" and with that, Nightwing takes a leap off the building, grappling gun in hand. Red Hood isn't far behind, ignoring Tony and Steve completely, and grumbling something about the nickname.

A few minutes pass before either of them says anything.

"Well... that was certainly eventful." Tony turns to Steve. "I guess we can go home now."

Steve looks... conflicted. "They were just kids." Ah. Yeah, Tony's still not over that either.

"We don't know who they really are, so it's not like there's a lot we can do about it." He doesn't like the idea of kids on the streets fighting crime - Red Hood had been carrying _guns_ \- but he also knows how goddamn stubborn kids can be. "I don't like it either, but what are we going to do? Chase after them and demand they stop? If they were telling the truth, at least two of them have been at this longer than I have, one a lot longer. They're obviously doing something right if they haven't died yet."

"One of them, Red Hood, he said he had died." Steve reminds him.

"I'm not even going to question that, honestly. It makes about as much sense as you surviving being a capsicle." Steve shakes his head a bit. "C'mon, lets go report what we found to Fury. I don't want to be in Gotham any longer than I have to."

He moves to grab hold of Steve, so they can get the hell outta Gotham, but pauses for a moment, seeing movement out of the corner of his eye.

"Tony?"

"Hm?" He squints, frowns, and turns back to Steve. "Thought i saw something. Guess it was nothing." Steve looks like he wants to speak, so Tony hurries along. "Like I said, I don't want to be here any longer than I have to. This place gives me the creeps." Steve seems contented with that, and they leave. If Tony glaces over his shoulder and sees a figure in black watching them leave, then well, that's his business.

**Author's Note:**

> Yes Tony saw batman at the end, and also yes, the "hawkeye knock off in star city," is Green Arrow. I thought it'd be fun to make mention of another DC vigilante who doesn't have powers or anything. It just slipped in there honestly lol
> 
> If you like my writing and would like to support me, consider [buying me a coffee?](https://ko-fi.com/remi_mae)


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